The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Tell us about your new PPV, show us some pictures, let us know how you did what you did!
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fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

How fitting, this will be the 100th reply and I've just hit 10000 views.

Shockworks coilovers arrived today - thus marking the final piece to the puzzle.

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These things are amazing quality parts. Welds are great, finish is great, packing is great, and performance is great too from what I hear ;)

The front struts have the new billet top mount as well, so no more rubber or poly mount up front to worry about going bad or making noise.

Installation was pretty simple, not much more involved than a regular strut replacement. I left everything as set, with a soft setting for now.

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This is how it sits out of the box. Rear is about 1/2" higher than the front. There is plenty of adjustment to go either direction from here, I am probably going to leave it as it is for now and see how I like it and how it does on the roads around here. I need to actually put some miles on everything and make sure all my parts are good - there are about 1 million variables at play in my car now as just about everything has been removed, replaced, or swapped. All I've been able to do thus far was let it run on the lift a bit. Driving down the road is a whole other thing.

I did bring it out of the garage and around the block, but I'll wait until tomorrow to actually start putting some miles on it. Going to need an alignment, tune, and hopefully that's it :lol:
Pursuit
Administration Staff
Posts: 969
Joined: Tue Apr 23, 2013 3:39 pm
Location: Omaha, NE area

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by Pursuit »

Congrats on the build! It's been great to follow along. Good luck with the final shakedown!

Maurice
Maurice Sheil

mhsheil@gmail.com

2011 Caprice Phantom Black 9C3
2012 Impala 9C1
1995 9C1 Caprice
1996 GMC Sierra C1500
1996 Chevrolet K2500 Extended Cab, long box, 454, 91,000 rust free miles
1974 SJ Grand Prix 455 well optioned with factory moon roof
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Pursuit wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 9:33 am Congrats on the build! It's been great to follow along. Good luck with the final shakedown!

Maurice
Thanks! It's been a lot of fun documenting everything and figuring everything out. It's fun to look at the early posts and still figure all the things I needed to do.

Drove around a bit more today, and it seems like pretty much every system is working as intended.

I can verify
Push button start
Passive entry
HUD
Heated/cooled seats
Head unit with XM/Nav and Bose amp
Blind spot alert
Lane departure warning
Memory seats
Backup camera
Electronic parking brake
Probably some other things I am forgetting ...

All function like factory

Things I haven't been able to test yet
Automatic wipers
Collision alert (haha)

Things that don't work
Driver rear door latch keeps alerting that the door is open, every time the car comes to a stop and moves again it alerts in the cluster, very annoying. Going to take it apart and inspect it, and order another if need be. Can probably clean the contacts to make it function properly again. I have the PPV latch still, but it has manual child locks and the SS is automatic, so it would work but I would lose that feature on that door. Not sure how I didn't notice this earlier, I swear it was working properly before.

And my speedo is off by quite a bit, which is odd since I am using a 3.27 diff and that is what was in the SS. I'll double check my calibration and make whatever adjustments needed. Sitting in the car driving I feel like I'm sitting in the sun - I don't think I've ever been in a Florida car that didn't have a tint strip at the top. I usually have the whole windshield done, I will probably have that done in addition to a darker strip at the top.

Also gave her a long overdue wash this morning, it was dirty when I pulled it in the shop and then add 2 months of shop dust onto it :x

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smwalker
Administration Staff
Posts: 2201
Joined: Mon Jul 29, 2013 1:44 am
Location: Azusa,CA

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by smwalker »

Think the SS's also had a feature where they would parallel park themselves?? Gonna test that?? IF so get video!! LOL

Ah yea!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ866oZKAo4

Even on the manual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIGJgUR2HzM
Steve Walker
Azusa, CA
'11 PPV 9C3 Huron White
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

smwalker wrote: Fri Jul 09, 2021 2:03 pm Think the SS's also had a feature where they would parallel park themselves?? Gonna test that?? IF so get video!! LOL

Ah yea!! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJ866oZKAo4
Haha no, the only thing I ended up not taking from the SS was the parking sensors. For two reasons, first being that I would need both AUS bumpers to have mounting spaces for them, and second because I really don't care for them. Backup cam works fine if I'm trying to get close to something. The auto park feature utilizes both the blind spot radar sensors and the park sensors, so it won't work on my setup.
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Door latch was a simple fix, and also explains why I didn't notice it earlier. The latch signal goes through the power window switch, which was unplugged as I am waiting for my Aus rear door panels to arrive. With the window switch plugged in, the door ajar indicator works like it is supposed to instead of constantly going off.
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Got the car aligned yesterday morning, which I was happy to get done since now I can put some miles on it without worrying about screwing up my new tires.

And that's where the good news ends. I was in the shop doing a few things and I noticed two spots under my car instead of the normal one for AC. I tossed it up on the lift and I've got a pretty good trans fluid leak. I was hoping for tailshaft, but no dice. It looks to be coming from the shifter area, which could be a couple different things. I can't tell exactly, even with a mirror. Need to drop it down a bit.

Unfortunately, with the way the shifter bolts on I'm not sure I can tilt the trans down enough to R&R it without pulling the trans. I'm going to try but either way I need to pull the exhaust and driveshaft out to be able to get that far.

There are 2 plugs that sit on the side of the trans up top, where I had to remove the existing sensor/plunger and install plugs in their place. I used a liquid sealant on those, maybe it wasn't up to the task against ATF. Those are completely obscured by the shifter now though, so it has to come off to try and see where the issue is. I checked for leaks after the first couple test drives, I figured I was past this stage. Oh well, I'll get it sorted out.

Still trying to setup an appointment with a tuner. Probably a couple weeks out though as the good ones are usually booked.
Stallionban
Posts: 2
Joined: Sat Jun 12, 2021 12:14 am

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by Stallionban »

What was involved with getting the heated and cooled seats to work?
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Stallionban wrote: Thu Jul 15, 2021 4:41 pm What was involved with getting the heated and cooled seats to work?
I'm using the SS BCM, harnesses, etc, so as far as my car knows it is an SS still. To make it work on a Caprice you would need the seats, controls, wiring to seats, wiring to BCM, and a custom BCM program that at this time is not available. Pretty sure it is in the works though.

Edit: I was able to R&R the shifter without pulling the trans all the way, and I resealed everything. No leaks yet, fingers crossed.
fuzzkill
Posts: 152
Joined: Sat Feb 04, 2017 4:19 pm

Re: The no budget build - manual, LSA, SS

Post by fuzzkill »

Got about 250 miles on the setup so far, and loving it. Made a few minor tweaks to things.

I overlooked that the LSA boost bypass won't close 100% without being energized, so I was only making around 3psi. I went ahead and fixed that, disabled some torque management, and got rid of the ETC opening rate limits. Now it makes around 7.5psi which sounds about right for a cam/headers with stock pullies. Timing and fueling are still on the very conservative side as I'm not trying to hurt anything before I get it tuned properly. That being said, it's a hoot to drive :lol: . I've already gotten 2 double takes from passers by when starting it, I missed that.

It looks like I should be able to get a dyno tuning appointment right around the end of the month. Should take care of a few driveability issues from throwing a basically stock calibration on this car. Everything running perfect though, only hiccup so far was the trans fluid leak.
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